Dark Forest 1
Two days later, Ui and Hinata gathered in the Library. After setting aside a little time the day before to gather a bit more information about the City, it was finally time to hear Dante and the Sinners’ story in earnest.
Anticipation and dread washed over them together. No matter how much one studied and prepared in advance, reality was always something difficult to imagine until you saw it with your own eyes.
“Haa… Hinata, are you ready?”
“Yes. I’m ready.”
“Understood. Then I’ll send the message now.”
Ui set her pen to the book and began to write. Dante’s reply appeared at once.
Alright, then I’ll start on this end too.
My story began in a certain dark forest.
I don’t remember much of what came before. The first thing my memory holds is the moment I was about to die in some forest, cornered by a trio who called themselves “the Leopard, the Lion, and the Wolf.”
Something’s already gone terribly wrong from the very start, hasn’t it?! What on earth did the Dante of the past do to end up in a situation like that?
Ui was aghast. A protagonist who nearly dies right at the beginning of his own story? As if reliving the feelings of that moment, Dante sent the next message.
I told you already—I don’t know either. It feels like all my memories just got wiped clean.
The notebook flipped open to the next page of its own accord, and scenes appeared on the paper as if a picture-play were unfolding before their eyes. Within those scenes stood Dante and a man carrying a strangely shaped halberd. Fortunately the book was large enough that there was still room to write beneath the miniature theater.
“This is…? The book just started doing this on its own…”
“They said they saw our story in something like an animation, right? This must be the way we get to see their world.”
Hinata tilted her head; Ui explained. Even though the images looked like drawings, the voices came through clearly.
“Looks like you swapped out your head in the meantime. People like you are usually thorough about preparations, aren’t they?”
Guh… If I can just engrave the XX, trash like you…
Dante could only produce the sound of ticking, yet his words appeared beneath the scene like subtitles, so there was no trouble understanding him. Ui wrote in the empty space.
Hmm. The way you all watched our story like an animation, it seems we get the reverse—something like a paper picture-play. And Dante’s words come out as subtitles.
Is that so? Well, that’s a relief. A picture-play, though… it’ll feel different from what we’re seeing.
While they wrote, the theater paused; once they finished, it resumed. A tall woman looked over Dante’s condition and laughed.
“Haha. Looks like that head of yours doesn’t even have a mouth, huh?”
“Yeah. All I hear is ticking.”
A gray-haired woman who had approached at some point spoke, then casually swung the blade she carried and cut Dante down.
Gyaaah…!
“Eek!”
“…”
Blood sprayed. Dante’s ticking accelerated wildly. Hinata covered her face with both hands; Ui could only stare in stunned silence, her expression frozen in horror. From the perspective of someone from Kivotos, where bodies were sturdy, making blood flow was a heavy matter indeed. The woman in the scene, however, spoke as if it were nothing.
“The ticking’s speeding up. So you can feel pain after all.”
Damn it… Why am I… being attacked?
Guh… Is the memory wipe already starting? I rushed the XXX too hard…
“W-what’s going on? Is this a part even Dante doesn’t know about?”
“It seems so. Dante tried to engrave something, failed, and had his memories erased. And what that something was… unfortunately, there’s no way for us to know either.”
There was no need to pass that particular observation on to Dante—that was Ui’s thought. Hinata said nothing, but she was thinking the same thing. The people in the scene were already discussing whether or not to finish Dante off.
“He’s quieted down. Let’s wrap this up.”
“Wolf, there’s no one here and no one’s coming. What’s the rush?”
The gray-haired woman who had cut Dante—called Wolf—answered.
“We have to follow the teachings. We mustn’t waste time.”
“But still… haah. When else in our lives are we going to get to kill a guy like this?”
“Lion, you’re too emotional when you work. It’d be nice if you could separate public and private.”
“Tch…”
The blonde woman called Lion looked genuinely disappointed at the man’s words. That meant the gloomy-looking man had to be the Leopard.
Ui and Hinata remembered that the City had an Association of Fixers who specialized in killing. Just as they had heard, life in the City was a cheap commodity.
“I wanted to see your face. Shame. You won’t tell us where your star is, will you?”
Of course not. Where the XXX is… damn it, where was the XXX supposed to be in the first place? The memories are vanishing too fast…
The Dante in the scene was panicking as his memories slipped away, but the man who had asked the question understood none of it. Just as the three of them were about to finish him off, the sudden roar of a car engine cut through the forest.
A bus crashing into the middle of the forest… that was my first meeting with the Sinners, and with Limbus Company.
The bus that appeared out of nowhere in the woods slammed into the Lion who had been blocking its path and sent her flying. Hinata jumped again, but the Lion herself took no serious injury; the Wolf, rather than rushing to check on her comrade, was simply astonished that the Lion had been shoved back at all.
With a hiss of released pressure, someone stepped down from the bus. White hair, cold eyes—Faust.
“If my eyes still do not deceive me, you will reach the harbor of glory.”
“So this is Faust’s voice… It’s soft. But somehow cold as well.”
“It feels almost emotionless, doesn’t it?”
While the girls discussed Faust’s voice, Dante was desperately trying to grasp the situation.
W-who are you? Name tag… Fa… ust?
“You have lost your way in a dark forest.”
What…?
“And yet you were not afraid. Why is that?”
Saying something like that to a person whose memories were vanishing in real time was pointless, Ui thought. Unlike the two girls, who could make no sense of Faust’s cryptic words, Dante seemed to understand; he ticked in reply.
Because… if I just lift my head and look for the star…
“Yes. Now, while you hold that image in your mind, cry out the words I speak from your heart.”
Follow your star.
Follow… your star…
“There are an awful lot of mentions of ‘stars.’ What on earth does it mean?”
The moment Hinata tilted her head—
Tick-tick-tick-tick
Rrrrrrrrk
Dante’s clock ran wild. In the next scene, countless chains were piercing straight through his clock-head. Dante’s face—or rather, the lack of one—was twisted in agony, yet Faust remained perfectly composed. She remarked that his heart had not truly been ruined, and even knowing it was only a vision, Ui’s face tightened a little at the sight of someone so indifferent in front of a person in pain.
“With this, the contract is complete. Dante, we are now bound to your time.”
…So this is how you joined the company?
…Yeah.
“Can you even call this joining a company…? I’m not sure. It feels more like Dante was forced into it.”
“I think so too.”
If this counted as a legitimate hiring process, the girls wondered whose head it had come out of.